Translate

Monday, April 17, 2017

From Wikipedia"CSSDavid was a Civil War-era torpedo boat. On October 5, 1863, she undertook a partially successful attack on the USS New Ironsides, then participating in the blockade of Charleston, South Carolina. Based upon a design by St. Julien Ravenel, the David was built as a private venture by T. Stoney at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863, and was put under the control of the Confederate States Navy. Eventually over twenty torpedo boats of the David
type were built for and operated by the CSN. The cigar-shaped boat
carried a 32 by 10 inch (81 × 25 cm) explosive charge of 134 pounds
(about 60 kilograms) gunpowder on the end of a spar projecting forward
from her bow. CSS David operated as a semi-submersible: water was
taken into ballast tanks so that only the length of the open-top
conning tower and the stack for the boiler appeared above water. Designed to operate very low in the water, David resembled in general a submersible submarine; she was, however, strictly a surface vessel. Operating on dark nights, and using anthracite coal (which burns without smoke), David was nearly as hard to see as a true submarine.

On the night of October 5, 1863, David, commanded by LieutenantWilliam T. Glassell, CSN, left Charleston Harbor to attack the casemated ironcladsteamerUSS New Ironsides. The torpedo boat approached undetected until she was within 50 yards of the blockader. Hailed by the watch on board New Ironsides, Glassell replied with a blast from a shotgun and David plunged ahead to strike. Her spar torpedo detonated under the starboard quarter of the ironclad, throwing high a column of water which rained back upon the Confederate vessel and put out her boiler fires. Her engine dead, David hung under the quarter of New Ironsides while small arms fire from the Federal ship spattered the water around the torpedo boat.Believing that their vessel was sinking, Glassell and two others abandoned her; the pilot, Walker Cannon, who could not swim, remained on board. A short time later, Assistant Engineer J. H. Tomb swam back to the craft and climbed on board. Rekindling the fires, Tomb succeeded in getting David's engine working again, and with Cannon at the wheel, the torpedo boat steamed up the channel to safety. Glassell and Seaman James Sullivan, David's fireman, were captured. New Ironsides,
though not sunk, was damaged by the explosion. US Navy casualties were
Acting Ensign C.W.Howard (died of gunshot wound), Seaman William L. Knox
(legs broken) and Master at Arms Thomas Little (contusions).

Photograph of a captured David-class torpedo boat (possibly CSS David herself), taken after the fall of Charleston in 1865

The wreck of the CSS David

The next 4 months of David's existence are obscure. She or
other torpedo boats tried more attacks on Union blockaders; reports from
different ships claim three such attempts, all unsuccessful, during the
remainder of October 1863. On March 6, 1864, David attacked USS Memphis in the North Edisto River. The torpedo boat struck the blockader first on the port quarter, but the torpedo did not explode. Memphis slipped her chain, at the same time firing ineffectively at David with small arms. Putting about, the torpedo boat struck Memphis again, this time a glancing blow on the starboard quarter; once more the torpedo misfired. Since Memphis had now opened up with her heavy guns, David, having lost part of her stack when rammed, retreated up the river out of range. Memphis, uninjured, resumed her blockading station.David's last confirmed action came on April 18, 1864 when she tried to sink the screw frigateUSS Wabash. Alert lookouts on board the blockader sighted David
in time to permit the frigate to slip her chain, avoid the attack, and
open fire on the torpedo boat. Neither side suffered any damage.The ultimate fate of David is uncertain. Several torpedo boats of this type fell into Union hands when Charleston was captured in February 1865. David may well have been among them. January 20, 1998, underwater archaeologist Dr. E. Lee Spence led a Sea Research Society
expedition, funded by philanthropist Stanley M. Fulton, to find the
remains of the two Confederate torpedo boats shown in various photos
taken shortly after the fall of Charleston. Spence's theory was that the
two vessels had been abandoned where they lay and were simply filled
over as the city expanded.
Spence used still existing houses in the pictures to triangulate where
they might be. Using a ground penetrating radar, operated by Claude E.
"Pete" Petrone of National Geographic Magazine,
the expedition located two radar anomalies consistent with what would
be expected of the two wrecks. The anomalies were under present-day
Tradd Street, so no excavation was done. A post-war letter written by David C. Ebaugh, who supervised the construction of the David, described it as abandoned at what was then the foot of Tradd Street.

Sunday, April 16, 2017

From Wikipedia"A flying pendulum clock is a clock that uses a flying pendulum escapement
mechanism. A small metal ball, connected by string wraps around one
brass post, then unwinds before repeating on the other brass post.The flying pendulum clock was invented and patented in 1883 by Adler Christian Clausen and J. C. Slafter in Minneapolis. The clock was later called the Ignatz Flying pendulum clock after a character in the Krazy Kat comic. It has been called "the craziest clock in the world" due to the motion of the escapement.This clock was first designed by Leonardo di Vinci

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Here are some images of Revell's 1/16 scale BMW Isetta 250.From Wikipedia"The Isetta is an Italian-designed microcar built under license in a number of different countries, including Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Because of its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it became known as a bubble car, a name later given to other similar vehicles.In 1955, the BMW Isetta became the world's first mass-production car to achieve a fuel consumption of 3 L/100 km (94 mpg‑imp; 78 mpg‑US). It was the top-selling single-cylinder car in the world, with 161,728 units sold.Initially manufactured by the Italian firm Iso SpA, the name Isetta is the Italian diminutive form of ISO, meaning little ISO.

BMW made the Isetta its own. They redesigned the powerplant around a
BMW one-cylinder, four-stroke, 247 cc motorcycle engine which generated
10 kW (13 hp). Although the major elements of the Italian design
remained intact, BMW re-engineered much of the car, so much so that none
of the parts between a BMW Isetta Moto Coupe and an Iso Isetta are
interchangeable. The first BMW Isetta appeared in April 1955.

In May 1962, three years after launching the conventionally modern-looking BMW 700, BMW ceased production of Isettas. A total of 161,728 units had been built.

While it retained the "Bubble Window" styling, it differed from the
Italian model in that its headlamps were fixed separately to the sides
of the bodywork and it carried the BMW badge below the windscreen. The
car was also redesigned to take a modified version of the 250 cc
four-stroke engine from the BMW R25/3
motorcycle and the front suspension was changed. The single-cylinder
generated 9 kW (12 hp) at 5800 rpm. The crankcase and cylinder were made
of cast iron, the cylinder head of aluminium. However, the head was rotated by 180° compared with the motorcycle engine. The twin-bearing crankshaft
was also different in the Isetta power unit, being larger and featuring
reinforced bearings. One of the reasons for this was the heavy Dynastart
unit which combined the dynamo and self-starter. The fuel mixture was
provided by a Bing sliding throttle side draft motorcycle carburetor.
In addition to further changes of detail, the BMW engineers enlarged
the sump for installation in the car and cooled the engine by means of a
radial fan and shrouded ducting.The power train from the four-speed gearbox to the two rear wheels
was also unusual: fixed to the gearbox output drive was something called
a Hardy disc, which was a cardan joint
made of rubber. On the other side of it was a cardan shaft, and finally
a second Hardy disc, which in turn was located at the entrance to a
chain case. A duplex chain running in an oil bath led finally to a rigid
shaft, at each end of which were the two rear wheels. Thanks to this
elaborate power transfer, the engine-gearbox unit was both free of
tension and well soundproofed in its linkage to the rear axle.In Germany, the Isetta could even be driven with a motorcycle
license. The top speed of the Isetta 250 was rated as 85 km/h (53 mph).The first BMW Isetta rolled off the line in April 1955, and in the
next eight months some 10,000 of the "bubblecars" were produced.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Here are some images of Cottage Industry Models 1/32 scale Robert Fulton's Nautilus.

From Wikipedia"Nautilus was a submarine first tested in 1800. Though preceded by Cornelius Drebbel's vessel of 1620, Nautilus is often considered to be the first practical submarine. The Nautilus was designed between 1793 and 1797 by the American inventor Robert Fulton, then living in the French First Republic.
He unsuccessfully proposed to the Directory that they subsidize its
construction as a means to balance British seapower. His second, also
unsuccessful, proposal to them was that he be paid nothing until the Nautilus
had sunk British shipping, and then only a small percentage of the
prize money. Fulton directed his next proposal to the Minister of
Marine, who granted him permission to build.

Fulton built the first Nautilus of copper sheets over iron ribs at the Perrier boatyard in Rouen. It was 21 ft 3 in (6.48 m) long and 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) in the beam. Propulsion was provided by a hand-cranked screw propeller. The hollow iron keel was the vessel's ballast tank, flooded and emptied to change buoyancy. Two horizontal fins, diving planes in modern terms, on the stubby horizontal rudder controlled angle of dive. Overall, Nautilus resembled a modern research submarine, such as the NR-1,
having a long teardrop hull. The design included an observation dome,
somewhat similar in appearance, if not function, to the conning tower of
later submarines. When surfaced, a fan-shaped collapsible sail, reminiscent of those popular on Chinese ships, could be deployed. Air, beyond that enclosed within the vessel, could be provided by a snorkel constructed of waterproofed leather.Nautilus was designed from the start to carry what Fulton called a "carcass", a naval mine
intended to be dragged into contact with an enemy ship. A device on the
top of the dome drove a spiked eye into the enemy's wooden hull. The
submarine then released its mine on a line that went through the eye.
The submarine sped away. When the long line had paid out, the mine would
strike the target hull and explode by a detonator. These "carcasses"
were variously sized copper cylinders carrying between ten and two
hundred pounds of gunpowder. Contact with the hull triggered a gunlock
mechanism.Nautilus' first test dives were in the Seine at Rouen,
in the Saint-Gervais dock, beginning July 29, 1800. These tests were
all successful, but the river current interfered with some tests, so
Fulton took the boat to Le Havre to work in the quiet salt water of the
harbor. He tested endurance with a candle lit, and found the flame did
not challenge the air capacity of the snorkel. He also tested the speed
of his two men cranking against that of two men rowing on the surface. Nautilus
covered the 360 ft (110 m) course two minutes faster than the rowing
crew. During this time he changed the screw propeller to one with four
vanes, like a windmill, and modified the rudder.Through friends like Gaspard Monge and Pierre-Simon Laplace, Fulton obtained an interview with Napoleon,
but was unable to garner support for his vessel; however, Fulton's
friends pushed the Minister of Marine into appointing a scholarly panel,
to consist of Volney, Monge, and Laplace, to assess the submarine,.On July 3, 1801, at Le Havre, Fulton took the revised Nautilus
down to the then-remarkable depth of 25 feet (7.6 m). With his three
crewmen and two candles burning he remained for an hour without
difficulty. Adding a copper "bomb" (globe) containing 200 ft3 (5.7m3)
of air extended the time underwater for the crew for at least four and a
half hours. One of the renovations included a 1.5-inch-diameter (38 mm)
glass in the dome, whose light he found sufficient for reading a watch,
making candles during daylight activities unnecessary. Speed trials put
Nautilus at two knots on the surface, and covering 400 m in 7 minutes. He also discovered that compasses worked underwater exactly as on the surface.The first trial of a "carcass" destroyed a 40-foot sloop provided by
the Admiralty. Fulton suggested that not only should they be used
against specific ships by submarines, but be set floating into harbors
and into estuaries with the tide to wreak havoc at random.The overseeing committee enthusiastically recommended the building of
two brass subs, 36 ft (11 m) long, 12 ft (3.7 m) wide, with a crew of
eight, and air for eight hours of submersion.In September, Napoleon expressed interest in seeing the Nautilus,
only to find that, as it had leaked badly, Fulton had her dismantled
and the more important bits destroyed at the end of the tests. Despite
the many reports of success by reliable witnesses, like the Prefect
Marine of Brest, Napoleon decided Fulton was a swindler and charlatan.
The French navy had no enthusiasm for a weapon they considered suicidal
for the crews even though Fulton had had no problems and despite
evidence it would be overwhelmingly destructive against conventional
ships.

Though knowing the French had no further interest, the British
preferred to keep a control on this dangerous device by paying Fulton
£800 to come to England (his original planned destination before going
to France) and develop a second Nautilus for them. The victory at Trafalgar
made his work no longer a danger, and he was ignored until he left, in
frustration, for America in October 1806. He left his papers on
submarines with the American consul in London. He never asked for them,
never referred to his Nautilus work, and the papers went unpublished until 1920.These papers show that his British Nautilus was planned as a
35 ft (11 m) long, 10 ft (3.0 m) beam sea-going boat with a crew of six,
to be provisioned for 20 days at sea. The upper surface was provided
with 30 "carcass" compartments. The hull was to imitate a sea-going
sloop with conventional-looking mast and sails that could be lowered and
unstepped for submersion. Her two-bladed propeller, still hand-cranked,
folded up out of the water when surfaced to reduce drag. When
submerged, air came through two streamlined ventilation pipes, and light
from the conning tower. However, none of this was actually constructed.